This paper discusses the origin and history of POc *tabu. The term ‘taboo’ [PPn *tapu] was brought to western awareness late in the 18th century by European travellers in Polynesia including Captain James Cook, who recognised in its use a widespread system of promulgating and enforcing a code both religious and political (Cook & King 1785). It was understood as a stative verb ‘prohibited’, and as a noun applicable both to the ban and to the object or activity banned. Hence it could be applied to places as being off limits, or a person might become subject to taboo and hence treated in a certain way. People believed that tapu restrictions were laid down by the gods or their heirs and had to be scrupulously followed. Deviation meant misfortune, possibly death. Where hereditary leadership was entrenched, as in Fiji and Tonga, a certain veneration was due to the chief, who was deemed tabu/tapu. As a result, certain forms of speech had to be used, not only in speaking to him but in conversation about him, while certain topics could not be mentioned in the chief’s presence. Thus the prohibition included a sense of ‘untouchable because sacred’.
Examples of taboo [tapu] noted by Cook involved prohibition of certain activities or actions that centred on the king or important chiefs. From the record of his historic journeys we find the following (1785, vol.3:163–4):
They apply the word taboo indifferently both to persons and things. This word is also used to express anything sacred, or eminent, or devoted. Thus the king of Owhyhee [Hawai’i] was called Eree-taboo; a human victim, tangata-taboo; and in the same manner, among the Friendly Islanders, Tonga, the island where the king resides, is named Tonga-taboo.
However:
Women are also tabooed, or forbidden to eat certain kinds of meats. We also frequently saw several at their meals, who had the meat put into their mouths by others; and on our asking the reason of this singularity were told, that they were tabooed, or forbidden, to feed themselves. This prohibition … was always laid on them, after they had assisted at any funeral, or touched a dead body, and also on other occasions.
Later, in Hawaii, it was noted (1785, vol.2:249) that, when local people were confronted by an unfamiliar situation, as when visiting a British ship:
The people here always asked, with great eagerness and signs of fear to offend, whether any particular thing, which they desired to see, or we were unwilling to show, was taboo.
William Mariner,1 who lived in Tonga from 1806 to 1810, provided a detailed description by a westerner of its practice (Martin 1827:220–224).
This word [taboo] has various shades of signification: it means sacred or consecrated to a god, … it means prohibited or forbidden, and is applied not only to the thing prohibited, but to the prohibition itself, and frequently (when it is in sacred matters), to the person who breaks the prohibition. Thus if a piece of ground or a house be consecrated to a god, by express declaration, or the burial of a great chief, it is said to be taboo. … If a person touches the body of a dead chief, or any thing personally belonging to him, he becomes taboo, and time alone can relieve him. Certain kinds of food, as turtle, and a certain species of fish, from something in their nature, are said to be taboo, and must not be eaten until a small portion be first given to the gods. Any other kind of food may be rendered taboo by a prohibition being laid on it.
Mariner made clear (p.222) that not all taboos in Tonga were equally sacred, describing an occasion when a temporary taboo was applied by the chief to safeguard food supply:
To prevent certain kinds of food from growing scarce, a prohibition or taboo is set on them for a time, as after the inachi, or other great and repeated ceremonies; and which taboo is afterwards removed by the ceremony called fuccalahi. [fakalahi ‘increase’]
The term was readily adopted by missionaries who followed closely on the heels of the European explorers, and saw the concept as a useful term befitting elements of their teaching of a Christian God. As a consequence, the Polynesian term is believed to have spread into other parts of the Oceanic world with the adoption of Christianity, either as an extended meaning of an existing term, or as a new term, possibly replacing a different term with related meaning. We have in fact reconstructed two terms to POc, *tabu and *pali, with similar meanings. Reflexes of the latter were evidently once widespread but are now greatly reduced (see §10.7 below), presumably replaced by reflexes of *tabu.
A second result of western contact was that the Polynesian tapu term was rapidly adopted into familiar English usage as taboo. The Macquarie dictionary defines taboo as ‘forbidden to general use; placed under a prohibition’. Its emphasis is on the socially prohibited rather than the sacred. Although Cook and others recorded the term in their journals as ‘taboo’, that spelling carries its current English meaning in this article unless it is from a direct quotation. As can be seen from the cognate set below, the English term is in some dictionaries used to define the local term.
Although reflexes are widespread throughout Oceania, apparently related terms have been found beyond its borders only in two widely separated regions of CEMP. One is Tanimbar, an island roughly midway between the Bird’s Head of New Guinea and Arnhemland in Australia, where two languages, Yamdena and Fordata, are spoken. Patrick McConvell (pers. comm.) has questioned these terms as possible loans from Australian languages.2 The other is Numfor-Biak, islands off Cenderawasih Bay in Indonesian Papua, where the term kābus, although irregular, is considered a possible cognate by Blust in the ACD.
In the ACD, Blust reconstructs both POc *tabu ‘forbidden, prohibited’ and POc *tabuna ‘dehortative: don’t’, but recognises that *tabuna includes the root *tabu. The separate reconstruction of *tabun is unnecessary, as final -na can be accounted for independently. The root *tabu is reflected as both a stative verb ‘be forbidden, prohibited’ and as a noun ‘prohibition; that which is prohibited’. Reflexes of both word classes occur, with a suffix reflecting POc *-ña P:3S, while noun reflexes sometimes carry other possessor affixes. Thus in Molima tabu-gu, Kove tavu-ɣu ‘my taboo, that which is taboo for me’ and Kove (ai)tavu ‘her/his taboo, that which is taboo for her/him’, tabu- is a directly (inalienably) possessed noun. Adjectives in some Papuan Tip languages take possessor suffixes as markers of agreement with the noun they modify, e.g. Iduna tabu-tabu-na ‘forbidden’ (modifying a singular noun). Languages of the Admiralties and North Huon Gulf (Yabem, Bukawa) groups reflect *-ña as a fossil on roots that are or were used as attributes, and this accounts for the Admiralties reflexes below, where Proto Admiralty *tabu-n meant ‘forbidden’, readily interpreted as dehortative ‘don’t’.3
| PCEMP | *tambu | ‘forbidden, taboo’ (ACD) | |
| CMP | Yamdena | tambu | ‘restrain, prevent’ |
| CMP | Fordata | tabu | ‘forbid, prevent’ |
| SHWNG | Numfor | kābus | ‘tree branch or anything else placed on fruit tree or other object by its owner in order to make others afraid to approach the marked object lest ill fortune befall them’ (long vowel and final -s unexplained; ACD: footnote under *tapu-tapu) |
| POc | *tabu | [VSt] ‘forbidden, prohibited’ (Blust 2009b: 48) ; [N] ‘prohibition’ | |
| POc | *tabuna | ‘dehortative: “don’t!”’ (ACD) | |
| Adm | Nauna | tapu(n) | ‘don’t’ |
| Adm | Penchal | rapu(n) | ‘don’t’ |
| Adm | Wuvulu | apu(na) | ‘don’t’ |
| Adm | Aua | apu(na) | ‘don’t’ |
| Adm | Lou | topu(n) | ‘forbid, don’t do it’ |
| Adm | Kaniet | tabu(n) | ‘forbidden’ |
| Adm | Nyindrou | ⁿrabu(n) | ‘taboo, holy, sacred’ |
| NNG | Yabem | dabu(ŋ) | [N] ‘abstinence, continence, chastity, fast, taboo’ |
| NNG | Yabem | -jàm dabuŋ laweŋi | ‘avoid contact with in-laws, not touch them or call them by name’ (-jàm ‘do’; laweŋi ‘in-laws’) |
| NNG | Bukawa | dabu(ŋ) | ‘holy, taboo’ |
| NNG | Kove | (ai)tavu | ‘a taboo as on eating s.t. or saying an affine’s name’ (ai- ‘her/his’) |
| NNG | Sio | tabu | ‘s.t. that is prohibited’ |
| PT | Dobu | tabu | [N] ‘a disease magic inhibition placed on garden, coconut grove etc. by owner to prevent stealing’; [V] ‘to place such magic inhibition’ (Fortune 1963: 138) |
| PT | Dobu | tabu- | ‘[certain kin of deceased] who do not eat at a mortuary feast’ (Fortune 1963: 196) |
| PT | Gumawana | tabu | ‘taboo’ |
| PT | Gumawana | (va)tabu(ye) | ‘make s.t. taboo’ |
| PT | Iduna | tabu | [N] ‘law; forbidden thing; taboo’ |
| PT | Iduna | tabu-tabu(na) | [ADJ] ‘forbidden’ |
| PT | Iduna | (ala)tabu-tabu(yena) | ‘place a prohibition, put a spell on, work magic against, cause sickness or crops to fail’ |
| PT | Iduna | -atabu(yena) | ‘eat s.t. taboo’ |
| PT | Molima | tabu(gu) | ‘food forbidden to me’ (limited to food; -gu ‘my’) |
| PT | Tawala | tabu | ‘forbidden’ (said to be a Suau loan) |
| PT | Tubetube | tabu | ‘don’t’ |
| MM | Nakanai | tabu | ‘to tabu, be tabu’ |
| MM | Tigak | tap | ‘holy’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | tam | ‘strong taboo, e.g. of a spirit dwelling. It is used in places where spirits dwell and where punishment is inevitable if violated’ |
| MM | Tolai | tābu | ‘prohibition; a forbidden thing’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | tabu | ‘prohibited, forbidden’ |
| MM | Tangga | tabun | ‘a funeral feast where only clan members of the dead person may take part’ (Bell 1935b) |
| MM | Babatana | tabu | ‘forbidden, sacred’ |
| MM | Maringe | tabu | ‘be tabu, prohibited, sacred’ (from Bugotu?) |
| MM | Roviana | tabu | ‘put taboo under certain circumstances, on food’ (perhaps an introduced term? Waterhouse 1949) |
| SES | Gela | tabu | ‘to be set apart, forbidden; sacred, holy’ |
| SES | Bugotu | tabu | ‘sacred, forbidden, holy; prohibition placed on use or handling of anything’ |
| SES | Longgu | abu | ‘be taboo, forbidden’ |
| SES | Kwaio | abu | ‘sacred, taboo’ |
| SES | Lau | abu | ‘don’t’ (to child or animal) |
| SES | Lau | ābu | ‘holy, taboo’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | abu | ‘be tabooed, not allowed, forbidden’ (used as dehortative) (Lichtenberk 2008) ; ‘sacred, relating to the spirits; set apart, forbidden’ (Hogbin 1934b) |
| SES | ’Are’are | apu | ‘sacred, forbidden’ (used also as prohibitive, dehortative to children) |
| SES | ’Are’are | apu(na) | [N] ‘taboo. There are four varieties of taboo, each variety causing a different sickness’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | apu-apu | ‘whole region of burial place’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | apu(ni-a) | [V] ‘put a taboo under curse; forbid’ (-ni VT; -a O:3S) |
| SES | Sa’a | apu | ‘be taboo, forbidden’ |
| SES | Arosi | abu | ‘dehortatory don’t, sacred’ |
| SES | Owa | apu | ‘forbidden’ |
| PNCV | *tabu | ‘sacred, forbidden, taboo’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | tapu | ‘unapproachable, not to be touched under a prohibition with the sanction of some mana’ |
| NCV | Mota | tapu(a) | [N] ‘thing or place made tapu’ (-a nominaliser) |
| NCV | Raga | tabu | ‘set apart, prohibit’ (Bislama borrowing? Marie Duhamel, pers. comm.) |
| NCV | Tamambo | tabu | ‘sacred, forbidden’ |
| NCV | Nguna | tapu | ‘holy, sacred’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | (i)tapʷ | ‘forbidden’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | capʷi | ‘taboo’ (archaic) |
| Mic | Woleaian | tāfʷu | [N] ‘taboo, ban, ritual restriction protected by supernatural sanction’; [VI] ‘be prohibited by taboo’ (Pn loan?) |
| Mic | Kiribati | tapʷu | [N] ‘prohibition, interdiction’; [V] ‘sacred; forbidden, prohibited’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | fapu-i | [VT] ‘to mark, (esp. a coconut palm) as forbidden to others’; [N] ‘a nut or leaf used to mark a tree as forbidden’ |
| Fij | Bauan | tabu | ‘forbidden, prohibited, implying a religious sanction; sacred, holy’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tabu | ‘forbidden by strong communal sanction, sacred, holy’ |
| PPn | *tapu | ‘prohibited, under ritual restriction; sacred’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | tapu | ‘forbidden, prohibited; sacred, holy’ |
| Pn | Niuean | tapu | ‘be sacred, prohibited to common people, forbidden’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | tapu | ‘be forbidden, sacred, hallowed; forbidden or sacred place’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tapu | ‘be forbidden’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tapu | ‘forbidden, both as improper, and as formal interdiction on activity’; ‘sacred’; ‘holy’ (modern) |
| Pn | Tahitian | tapu | ‘a restriction’ |
| Pn | Māori | tapu | ‘under religious or superstitious restriction, a condition affecting persons, places and things’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | kapu | [N] ‘taboo, prohibition’; [V] ‘sacred, holy’ |
| MM | Petats | tsūbu(n) | ‘restriction on actions such as the eating of certain food by specified persons or at specified times, or the avoidance to be observed between individuals who stand to each other in certain relationships. Not applied to places or persons’ (-ū- for †*-a- is unexplained)(Blackwood 1935: 480) |
| SV | Sye | tompo(r) | ‘sacred, taboo’ (final -r is unexplained) |
From ethnographic descriptions we learn that *tabu reflexes are pervasive in Polynesia, used widely but in variable situations across North and Central Vanuatu (François 2022), occur a little less in the southeast Solomons where they apply mainly to spiritual concerns, and are found in very limited ways in western Melanesia, being apparently not used at all in some places.4
The following, however, appear to be contexts where tabu prohibitions are shared across major subgroups
Strong prohibitions exist throughout the Oceanic world on foodstuffs being prepared or particular foodstuffs eaten by certain people at particular times, such as pregnant or menstruating women or boys undergoing initiation. Cook’s journals give numerous examples of tapu situations where people, including chiefs, and people who have handled dead bodies, could not handle food but had to be fed by others (1785, vol.1:305, 350, vol.2:203). The following instance records the reaction of several Tongans invited to share a meal aboard the British ship (vol.1:286):
When dinner came upon table, not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing that was served up. On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but in general signifies that a thing is forbidden.
In western Oceanic communities, where tabu situations are far fewer than in Polynesia, the most frequently tabued situations involve consumption of food. Often a prohibition is restricted to certain kin relationships. In Dobu (PT), tabu- (with pronominal suffix) refers to ‘those [certain kin of deceased] who do not eat at a mortuary feast’ (Fortune 1963:196). Chowning (1991:61) defines tabu-gu in Molima (PT) as ‘food forbidden to me (limited to food)’. In Kove (NNG), she defines tavu-ɣu as ‘a taboo as on eating s.t. or saying an affine’s name’. In Yabem (NNG), dabu(ŋ) is defined as both a noun, ‘[s.t.] forbidden to eat’ and a verb ‘abstain from eating certain foods’. Bell (1935b:175–198, 306–322) lists a number of avoidance situations in Tanga (MM) [=Tangga], but most are labelled by terms other than *tabu reflexes. An exception is tabun, a funeral feast in which no other persons but the clan of the dead man may take part. Also listed is kuen tabun, a term for a coconut palm when its fruit is reserved for formal presentation to certain womenfolk as a form of gratitude. Bell writes that “although the word may appear to resemble tapu, it is not used much in Tanga”. He adds: “the word seems to be used only to express the exclusive nature of certain clan actions.” (p319).
In Petats (MM), Blackwood (1935:480) writes that the prohibitions which govern the daily lives of the people, given the term tsūbun5, apply neither to places nor persons, but to actions such as the eating of certain food by specified persons or groups or at specified times, or the avoidance to be observed between individuals who stand to each other in certain relationships. Waterhouse (1949) notes that, in Roviana, tabu means ‘to put taboo under certain circumstances, on food’, but he adds the proviso “perhaps an introduced term”.
Food restrictions dictated by tabu are not singled out for special mention in descriptions of avoidance behaviour we have from Southeast Solomonic languages (Hogbin 1934b, Ivens 1927, Keesing 1982), and they have a minor role in northern Vanuatu, being mentioned only in relation to candidates undergoing initiation rituals (François 2022:230).
Supply of foodstuffs may be subject to a temporary taboo, as described by Martin (1827) in Tonga (§10.1) where it is applied by chiefs to harvesting items such as coconuts prior to a major feast or in the likelihood of future shortages. Malinowski (1922:425) refers to kaytubutabu, in the Trobriands, ‘a ban on the consumption of coconuts and betelnuts associated with a specific magic to make them grow’. François (2022:225) notes a comparable usage in Mwotlap na-tqō where fishing activity is banned for a period so as to allow fish to reproduce. A ban there is signalled by a conspicuous leaf (e.g. a coconut frond, a cordyline leaf) tied to a stick at the entrance to the area. Ivens (1927:254–5) describes a similar temporary prohibition on foodstuffs prior to a feast made by a chief in Sa’a. Here the visible sign is identified as a pole with a bunch of leaves of the putty nut (_Parinari_um laurinum). In Sa’a, such non-religious prohibitions are labelled adi, not abu.
A similar practice is the placing of a taboo sign on a tree or garden by the owner to prevent theft. It is commonly placed on coconut and betel palms growing away from the village. Those who steal or trespass are believed to suffer illness or other misfortune, the result having been preordained by the owner. The tabu term may refer both to the ban and to the sign representing it. In Dobu, individuals may own the right to both impose and lift tabus which have the power to inflict disease, and are commonly used to protect private property in this way (Fortune 1963:138). We also find mention of the practice in Rotuman where fapu-i serves as a verb ‘to mark (esp. a coconut palm) as forbidden to others’, and as a noun ‘a nut or leaf used to mark a tree as forbidden.’
In Herman Melville’s Typee, set in the Marquesas and published in 1876 is the passage:
Frequently, in walking through the groves I observed breadfruit and coconut trees with a wreath of leaves twined in a peculiar fashion about their trunks. This was the mark of the taboo. The trees themselves, their fruit, and even the shadows they cast upon the ground were consecrated by their presence. (1876:252, quoted by Handy 1923)
Melville was evidently aware that the ban there was more than just a prohibition – it carried with it an endowment of sanctity.
In Numfor-Biak, a non-Oceanic Austronesian language, is a term kābus defined as ‘tree branch or anything else placed on fruit tree or other object by its owner in order to make others afraid to approach the marked object lest ill-fortune befall them’. The term is included in a footnote in ACD under *tapu-tapu, noting that while the initial k- corresponds to POc *t-, the long vowel and final -s are unexplained.
A taboo may also be placed on a location because it is perceived as either sacred or dangerous or some combination of both. This may be as in Tonga where a piece of ground or a house or a grave that has been visited by a chief and hence regarded as consecrated by a god, becomes tapu. It may apply in Vanuatu where graveyards and other places haunted by supernatural forces are to be avoided through fear. François (2022:235) lists Sakao e-tev ‘burial ground, grave’, and Tamambo tambu ‘grave’ as examples. The only mention of a place-related use of tabu in western Oceanic languages is in Sursurunga (MM) where tam is defined as ‘a strong taboo, e.g. of a spirit dwelling. It is used in places where spirits dwell and where punishment is inevitable if violated’.
The above-mentioned prohibitions apply to everyone. Other place taboos may be applicable only to a specified group. As Keesing (1982:65) explains it:
A Kwaio men’s house or shrine is abu from the point of view of those – women, infants, Christians – who are excluded from it; but it is not abu in and of itself. A woman giving birth is abu, and so is the women’s latrine, the menstrual hut, the childbirth shelter – but only in relation to those who cannot enter them. … What is abu for one person is mola ‘permitted’ for another.
No doubt practical, non-sacred prohibitions of this kind exist throughout the Oceanic world. But nowhere else have we located them so-labelled. Either these restrictions are thought to be so commonplace that mentioning is unnecessary, or they are labelled in terms other than abu.
Perhaps not surprisingly, apparent reflexes of *tabu sometimes occur as a dehortative, probably so that children might learn early where it applied. It is mentioned as sharing this function in wordlists from the Admiralties, in Tubetube and several Southeast Solomonic languages, while François lists it as a Bislama interjection probably borrowed from Polynesia (2022:219). It is not clear whether this meaning should be attributed to POc *tabu or if it developed independently in various daughter languages.
There is a difficulty in identifying the degree to which a sense of sanctity is part of the meaning of tabu as practised in different communities. Even in Polynesia, Fornander (1878:113) recognised a certain ambivalence in its practice.
The religious tabus relating to rites, observances, public worship, and the maintenance of the gods and their priests, were well known, comparatively fixed in their character, and the people brought up from childhood in the knowledge and observance of them. But the civil tabus were as uncertain and capricious as the mind of the chief, priest or individual who imposed them on others, or on himself and his family.
As an example of the latter, in Dobu, where taboos are widely used to protect private property, they are also used in the ordinary course of private feuds. A man will put a tabu on a woman who has refused his advances (Fortune 1963:143).
In his detailed examination of taboo terms in Vanuatu, François (2022) finds that although languages vary in what is identified by the terms as “off-limits, forbidden”, there is widespread evidence for their meanings to include “sacred, due to a sentiment of awe and fear before spiritual forces”.
Ivens (1927:253–5) describes the situation in Sa’a and neighbouring Ulawa, where there are two terms, apu and adi, both denoting prohibitions.
There is a word apu in both languages which … denotes something that is forbidden to a person by reason of communal regulations, e.g. the marriage of cross-cousins, or the following of any course of action which would result in bodily harm or in bringing on the ill will of the ghosts, e.g. the rash intrusion into those spheres of religion which belong to the office of the priest, or the doing of any thing which would cause a person to be ceremonially defiled, or that condition of things which follows the imposition of a tabu by the proper authority. The causative form ha’aapu denotes a state of prohibition which has as its background the commands either of constituted authority, or of the local ghosts. (1927:253)
The second term, adi, covers prohibitions imposed by the hereditary chiefs. Prohibitions are largely administered on an ad hoc basis for limited ends, and contain no ghostly sanctions. The things which are thus prohibited are “fruit trees, paths, gardens, pigs, fishing, streams, landing places, personal possessions” (p.253). adi depends on the position and prestige of the chiefs for its inviolacy: the action is merely human. apu is carried out with the accompaniment of religious rites, there is a ghostly sanction empowering it, and it is immaterial whether the person who invoked it was a person of importance or not. Any case of infraction of apu will be followed by sickness.
Hogbin (1934b:261) writes that in Malu’u [= To’aba’ita], ‘sacred’ rather than ‘forbidden’ is the primary meaning of the term.
ambu is the local form of the Polynesian tapu and means, primarily, relating to the spirits, and hence, sacred. There are in addition, several derived meanings, first, set apart; second, forbidden under penalty of punishment by the spirits; and third, forbidden under penalty of punishment by man.
He adds (p.262) that since the introduction of Christianity, ambu, instead of being applied to spirits is now applied to God.
The sense of ‘sacred’, sometimes linked with ‘holy’ is included in definitions of reflexes of *tabu from a majority of subgroups. The implications of this terminology are open to conjecture. The entry for tapu in Firth’s Tikopia dictionary, for example, includes both ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’ in its gloss but annotates ‘holy’ as ‘modern’, suggesting the latter as a Christian addition to the meaning.
A major difference in tabu practices between Eastern and Western Oceanic societies would appear to lie in the way in which the authority believed responsible for upholding the prohibitions is viewed. In Eastern Oceanic the chiefs are believed to derive much of their power and status from possession of mana. The term exists in reconstructed form as PEOc *mana, a stative verb ‘to have supernatural power from ancestral spirits as manifest in successful outcomes; be efficacious’ and as a noun ‘efficacy, success’ (§9.2.1). Particularly in Polynesia, chiefs, endowed with mana, were regarded as descended from gods, with powers of life or death and largely held apart from the rest of the community. This carried an implication of sanctity on both the chiefs and on whatever they came in contact with, rendering tapu their person and much associated with them. The association between mana and tabu is continued in the Southeast Solomons but the chiefs there are ‘merely human’ in Ivens’ words, with the religious duties mainly overseen by priests.
Evidence of mana is lacking in western Melanesian communities. Seligman (1910:576) writes that
Neither at Wagawaga, Tubetube nor elsewhere in the district does there seem to be any development of that system of personal influence (mana) taboo whereby the thing made taboo receives, as it were, a dynamic charge from contact with an individual, which is dangerous to everyone not rendered immune by the possession of an equal or greater power.
In western Oceania, some communities are led by hereditary chiefs, others by big men. But in both kinds of leadership, power is often shared. In Mekeo, the chief shared his leadership role with the sorcerer (Stephen 1987), while in Kilivila the garden magician appeared equally powerful (Malinowski 1935). Neither hereditary chiefs nor big men in western Oceania hold the god-like stature of sacredness and apartness attributable to those in Fiji and Polynesia, and which accord the latter a special relationship with mana. In western Oceania it is magic rather than mana that affects all aspects of life, and magic appears to depend more heavily on a negative fear of sorcery than a positive awe in the face of the supernatural for its effectiveness.
Where a taboo is represented by a physical sign such as a cluster of leaves on a pole, removal of the taboo is indicated by removal of the sign. But where no sign exists, as with food or name taboos, an oral expression is required for its removal. Terms indicating freedom from taboo may show either that a temporary taboo has been lifted, or simply that a questioned item is not subject to taboo (and may never have been), and without context it is not always possible to know which situation applies. Both PPn *ŋafua ‘be allowed’ and PNPn *taŋa ‘free from ritual prohibition’ have cognates applicable to both situations, the shared Samoan and Tikopia terms indicating that either can apply to remove a restriction.
| PPn | *ŋafua | ‘be allowed’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | ŋofua | ‘allowed, permitted, not prohibited’ (Martin 1827: 233 calls it in contradistinction to taboo) |
| Pn | Niuean | ŋofua | ‘be allowed, be free to do s.t.’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ŋafua | ‘be made common, have a prohibition removed’ (Pratt gives faʔa-ŋafua ‘lift a taboo’) |
| Pn | Tikopia | ŋafua | ‘licit; appropriate, usually of food; opposite to tapu, hence edible’ |
| PNPn | *taŋa | ‘free from ritual prohibition’ | |
| Pn | Rennellese | taŋa | ‘to end, of a taboo, free of taboo’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | taŋa | ‘common, not tabu’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋa | ‘to have a restriction removed from things that had been prohibited’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | taŋa | ‘free from taboo (of land, traditional stories etc.)’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | taŋa | ‘allowed, free to do’ |
Some Eastern Polynesian languages use reflexes of still another PPn term *noa ‘be common, worthless’ to indicate that no taboo applies to a situation.
| PPn | *noa | ‘be common, worthless’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | noa | ‘signifies non-existence or infinitesimal state’ |
| Pn | Tongan | noa | ‘worthless, unimportant, meaningless’ |
| Pn | Samoan | noa | ‘of no importance, worthless, without purpose’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | noa | ‘ordinary, not sacred, free from tabu’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | noa | ‘profane, without tabu; only’ (placed after a noun) |
| Pn | Māori | noa | ‘free from tapu or any other restriction’ |
The Proto Malaita-Makira reconstruction *mola ‘usual, merely’ has reflexes in Lau and Kwaio that are similar in some respects to PPn *noa. Its meaning is extended in Lau to describe terms as contrary to taboo. Keesing (1982:65) describes the same function in Kwaio when he writes “What is abu for one person is mola ‘permitted’ for another.”
| Proto Malaita-Makira | *mola | ‘usual, merely; permitted’ | |
| SES | Lau | mola | ‘merely, common; unconsecrated, not abu’ |
| SES | Kwaio | mola | ‘merely, only; secular, render secular; permitted’ |
| SES | Sa’a | mola(ʔa) | ‘free, without price’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | mora | ‘merely, only’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | mora(ʔa) | ‘allowed, permitted’ |
| SES | Arosi | mora | ‘original, real, usual, customary’ |
A second term carrying the meaning of taboo, POc *pali ‘ritually restricted or prohibited’, has been reconstructed. It has an older history than POc *tabu, being reconstructed back to PAn *paliSi ‘taboo, ritual restriction; purifying rite’ (ACD). Its scattered Oceanic reflexes from the Admiralties, southeast Solomons and NC Vanuatu, together with a larger number from Micronesia, are evidence that it was once widespread, presumably replaced in some languages by reflexes of *tabu. The Micronesian terms do not suggest a clear PMic antecedent. Perhaps ‘engage in ceremonial rite’ is preferable to the gloss offered by Bender et al., 2003. Only Woleaian has reflexes of both *pali and *tabu, its *tabu reflex possibly borrowed from Polynesia. We currently lack enough information to allow us to distinguish the two terms with any certainty, although *pali differs from *tabu in lacking any sense of sanctity. We note that Blust glosses POc *pali as ‘taboo’ and that Paiwan palisi is glossed ‘tabu’ (ACD).
| PAn | *paliSi | ‘taboo, ritual restriction; purifying rite’ (ACD) | |
| Fma | Paiwan | palisi | ‘rite, ceremony; tabu; “superstition”’ |
| WMP | Malay | p-em-ali | ‘taboo’ |
| POc | *pali | ‘ritually restricted or prohibited’ (ACD: ‘taboo’) | |
| Adm | Seimat | (ha)hali(ni) | ‘forbid, prohibit’ (causative ha- may be added to verbs to express compulsion: Smythe p.416) |
| SES | Ghari | vali | ‘prohibited, forbidden’ |
| NCV | Raga | bali | ‘to refrain from certain kinds of food as “the one who carries a child does not eat chicken, shellfish etc.”’ (Hardacre 1924) |
| PMic | *fali | ‘engage in ceremonial rite’ (‘taboo, sacred’; Bender et al. 2003) | |
| Mic | Woleaian | fari | [vi] ‘be restricted, stay away from impure things, keep away from certain foods’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | fel | ‘to worship’ (faalifir ‘to be clean, uncontaminated’) |
| Mic | Chuukese | fen | ‘taboo, restricted, engage in worship’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | fǣn | ‘church worship’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | pel | ‘be in a taboo relationship with s.o. or s.t.’ |
| Mic | Mortlockese | fel | ‘be taboo, worship traditional gods’ |
| Mic | Satawalese | fal | ‘to worship traditional gods’ |
There can be little doubt that the primary meaning of POc *tabu was as a stative verb ‘prohibited, forbidden’ and as a noun, applicable both to the ban and to the thing banned. Hence POc *tabu (VSt) ‘prohibited, forbidden’; (N) ‘a ban on some action or thing; the thing so banned’.
From the collected ethnographic examples, POc *tabu appears to have had the following applications:
One area in which there is doubt as to its application in POc times is in the degree to which the tabooed object carries the sense of untouchable sanctity. The sense of awe and obeisance displayed before the chiefs in Polynesia and to a lesser extent accompanying the religious practices in the SE Solomons, and implicit there in tapu/apu is largely lacking in Western Oceanic, and it is suggested that this dispersal correlates to some extent with belief in mana. Tabu in western Oceanic languages appears not to hold the sense of sanctity unless imposed by Christian influence.
Blust calls the concept “one of the key cultural items in the POc lexicon, designating a type of social control that was enforced by supernatural sanctions” (ACD). As described in this chapter it may be rather more limited in its context.